Education is important in our society. Each year, significant time and money are spent on improving the quality of education, increasing scores on standardized tests, and stimulating students' interests in learning. Today's students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, social economic levels, and ethnicities. Traditional teaching methods have shown to be ineffective for all types of students, and alternative learning methods provide some students with an education better tailored to their specific learning needs. Alternative learning is often beneficial because students are presented with educational materials through non-traditional methods. For example, an alternative learning program can be administered to honors students or those students that have fallen behind in class.
With the increase in use of the Internet, online education offers a popular alternative learning method. Online education allows each student to work at his own pace and to access learning materials suitable to his learning style. Students can participate from a traditional school setting or from home.
Generally, online education includes an electronic curriculum of courses that are offered as a stand-alone education or as a supplement to traditional education. Each course provides online lessons, study materials, and assignments, for which the student is responsible. Completed materials can be electronically graded or sent to a live teacher. Should questions arise, the teacher and students can communicate via the Internet. In some settings, no face-to-face interaction ever occurs.
The lack of face-to-face interaction complicates obtaining the teacher's attention. In traditional classrooms, students can simply raise their hand or speak directly to the teacher. In contrast, an online teacher is not readily accessible to her students. If an online teacher is not logged on to her computer, she will be unable to determine whether a particular student needs help or has a question.
Attempts have been made to facilitate communication between educators, students, and parents in an online learning environment. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0127870, to Fields et al. (“Fields”), discloses notifying an educator, student, or parent that an event requiring a conference has occurred. For instance, if a student's grade falls below a threshold, an alert is sent to schedule an off-line conference. The alert is automatically generated by applying a fixed criteria not adjusted to student or teacher considerations, or on extensive factors. Moreover, Fields fails to provide recipient alert interpretation and temporal alert expiration.